Chilean astronomers discovered a planet classed as "the first Ultra Hot Neptune," 260 light-years from Earth, according to a study published on Monday in the Nature Astronomy journal.
Santiago de Chile.- That celestial body, classified as LTT 9779, reaches temperatures of up to 1,700 degrees Celsius and is an exoplanet located in the Neptune Desert, an area with low planetary density and that, having bodies like the planet Neptune, allow scientists to study planetary atmospheres.
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An ultrahot Neptune in the Neptune desert
The planet's discoverers are James Jenkins, a scholar from the Department of Astronomy of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Mathematics of the University of Chile, and Matías Díaz, a doctoral candidate in Astronomy at that center.
Both scientists studied the readings from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, in what was considered an 'unlikely' finding.
Jenkins explained that it is deemed an unlikely discovery because it is located in the Neptune Desert, where there are almost no planets and the existing ones have orbital periods of less than four days, and with masses and sizes similar to Neptune, which allows the investigation of its atmosphere.
He added that LTT 9779 has an atmosphere despite its closeness to the star it orbits and that it is very difficult to explain why this planet did not become a rock core, nor to find many more examples like this orbiting other stars as bright. (PL)
